Neal G. Smith (1937- 2012) was an ornithologist and tropical biologist who spent most of his career as a staff member of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama studying the evolutionary biology of birds and insects. Though the majority of his career was spent in a tropical climate, he conducted field work in Nunavut, Canada, from 1959-1960.

Smith was in his early twenties and attending Cornell University at the time. The field work was conducted between April and August of each year. Smith recorded his scientific observations, personal thoughts, and interactions in field notes, journals, and images, found in Smithsonian Institution Archives Accession 17-057, which was accessioned in 2016. The field notes and journals are full of personal details and observations recorded during his first years in the field. Some entries, like the one below, contain vivid details about living conditions in the field.

Monday, May 9 - Still pencil. Well, I've got time and temperature to write. Just sharpened the pencil with a now know. We are parked smack in the middle of Southampton Island, in a bloody wind storm. It is now 7:45pm. First things first -- the ink is still frozen solid, in fact everything that I own is frozen solid -- camera etc. God it's cold -- last night it went down to -25 degrees F -- plus wind and that’s authentic. It must be 15 degrees colder in the interior of this lovely tropical isle.

Wednesday, 21 December 2016

During April to June 1939, William and Lucile Mann visited Brazil and Argentina to collect live animals for Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park. The diary, written by Lucile, is arranged by date and details their travels and interactions during their journey. Lucile writes about daily events with wit and candor, but one entry in particular (May 27th) seems to capture what would truly demonstrate the Christmas spirit to the Director of a National Zoo.

May 27 [1939]- En route Patagonia page 28

Last night on the train Bill [William Mann] insisted on picking up the most formidable uniformed gentleman that any of us had seen. The Shippens warned him against doing so, and Mr. Newbery, who is traveling with us, said he would get the snub of his life.

"Leave him alone," said I, out of twelve years of experience. "They'll probably be bosom friends, we'll exchange Christmas cards for years, and doubtless he'll even get us some ostriches."

The man, a big mustachioed Argentine, turned out to be - not a general, but a police inspector, and sure enough he knew someone in Patagonas who had some ostriches. When we reached the town, he and Bill parted, with hearty handclasps, only after the officer had sent a telegraph to his friend, and assured us that the ostriches (really rheas) would be there for us on the return journey. [SIA RU007293, Box 7 Folder 3]

Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Watson M. Perrygo (1906-1984) was a field collector, taxidermist, and exhibits specialist for the United States National Museum (USNM). During his career at the Museum he traveled extensively and conducted field work with several notable scientists. In 1928-1929, he travel to Haiti to collect with W.M. Poole. Perrygo documented this work with numerous photographs. In several cases the captions he included dramatically alter the way one understands the meaning of the image he's taken, like the picture below. Perrygo's one sentence, recorded on the back, makes quite clear just how challenging travel was on the island.

"This stream is crossed 37 times in 7 1/2 miles distance between St. Michel and Marmalade, Haiti."

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Henry Cushier Raven (1889-1944) born today in 1889, worked primarily on the distribution of animals in East Asia, the study of sperm and beaked whales, and the comparative anatomy of primates, especially gorillas. In 1912, the Smithsonian Institution and William Louis Abbott were looking for a young collector and explorer to carry on Abbott's work in the East Indies. Hearing good reports regarding Raven, they hired him, and he spent most of the next six years in the islands. His travels in the Pacific took him to Borneo, the Celebes, and the Moluccas. Below is an excerpt from “Field journal of Henry Cushier Raven in Singapore, Java and Borneo and vicinity, dated 22 February 1912 to 2 November 1914” explaining how he procured a specimen during these years.

As a matter of habit when I am near the water I am continually on the watch for the eyes of crocodiles which with a reflector lamp look like red fire. Just as I was boarding the prahn I caught sight of one up stream a few yards. Tambie got his fish harpoon and we paddled to within ten feet of the brute when just as it went to draw down into the water, Tambie speared its neck. There was a swirl of water and a splash or two and we began to be towed up stream. The line to which the dart was fastened was heavy fish cord but very strong. After being towed about ^[[500]] yards, we began to drift down again and finally to come down stream quickly and then upon reaching the place from where we had started, the animal suddenly bit the cord and we lost the dart of the spear and 15 yards of line.

With another spear we paddled up stream for about a mile where we came upon a crocodile at the edge of the water. From the way the eye looked I had taken it to be a small one until within 15 feet I saw its body. I whispered to the men to "undor" (paddle) backwards but the animal heard me speak & turned around, but just as it did so I shot it in the neck and it floundered & splashed at a great rate. We harpooned it and towed it down stream. It is a narrow snouted one & good for its skeleton.

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Page from field book of Donald Erdman, that includes a recipe for pickled herring. Smithsonian Institution Archives. RU 007428, Box 1, Folder 1.

Food is often a topic in the field books. It’s clear that for many collectors, food is an important part of the day, and worth recording. We’ve found grocery lists, restaurant menus, descriptions of meals, and even recipes. Collectors’ opinions can be surprisingly strong when describing their daily intake. We thought we’d share a few of our more recent foodie reference finds.

[Jan. 20, 1963] The highlight of the day was the 8PM dinner at El Pulpo, the little Italian restaurant on the corner below our hotel. Boiled octopus (el pulpo) with a sauce of olive oil & hot red pepper -much over-rated, I think, as it was quite rubbery in texture & flavor, but also rather like the muscle of an oyster.

Our most esteemed berry. Makes delicious jelly. The Aleuts add a small portion of these berries to their preserved Saranas to impart to it the fragrance of these berries. On account of their infrequency these berries command at least quadruple the price of all other berries.

Perhaps the most surprising is how dramatically meals in during field collecting trips can vary. In “Colombian trip, 1944”, Ellsworth P. Killip describes the following meal.

Instituto all day. Perez Arbelaez came about 7, giving me a few specimens and lending his copy of the Mutis paintings index. Then a drink at the Grenada and a very big dinner on [[him ?]] at the French restaurant, Normandie. 15 plates of hors d'oeuvres followed by 15 more of mainly meats. Soup & camembert[sic] followed. Was too completely stuffed to feel like doing anything more so went home and to bed.

These quotes were found in recently transcribed field books. Once again, we’d like to thank the Smithsonian Transcription Center volunpeers for making the content accessible.

Friday, 12 September 2014

Do you feel a strong need to stay “connected”? It seems some of our collectors felt the same way. Richard Eliot Blackwelder (1909-2001), a zoologist, specialized in entomology and the principles of zoology. Educated at Stanford University (B.A. 1931, Ph.D. 1934), he spent much of his career on the curatorial staff of the Division of Insects of the United States National Museum (USNM, later to become the National Museum of Natural History or NMNH), specializing in the morphology, classification, and nomenclature of the Staphylinidae or “rove beetle.” He was in the West Indies with the Smithsonian's Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholarship from 1935 to 1938. His journal from the period [Journal of Richard E. Blackwelder, West Indies, vol. 2] includes an interesting insight into his own need to stay “connected.”

Puerto Rico [Page] 24, X-15-35

When we first landed in Puerto Rico our radio didn't work very well so I changed all the tubes. Since then we have gotten good reception at night, but can't pick up anything but local stations in the daytime. The following ^[[long-wave]] stations were received in San Juan: WKAQ and WNEL, San Juan, P.R.; WSB, Atlanta, Ga.; WBT, Charlotte, N.C.; WSM, Nashville, Tenn.; WHAS, Louisville, Ky.; WCAU, Philadelphia; WEAF and WABC, New York; WBZ, Boston; WGY, Schenectady; WHAM, Rochester; KDKA, Pittsburgh; WLW, Cincinnati; WTAM, Cleveland; WJR, Detroit; WGN, Chicago; WHO, Des Moines; XEFO, Mexico City.

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

William W. Welsh worked as a Scientific Assistant for the Bureau of Fisheries, Bureau of Biological Survey. The Field Book Project has cataloged the works of a number of specimen collectors like Welsh, individuals whose collecting is well documented but for whom we have few personal details. Though he was an active collector, as his field notes document, he has only one publication to his name. Fishes of the Gulf of Maine was published in Welsh’s name posthumously by his colleague Henry Bigelow.

Bigelow stated:

The report was far advanced when interrupted by his untimely death, and so much of the materials had been collected that, at the request of the Bureau of Fisheries, I have undertaken to carry it to publication along the lines originally laid down, though I am unable to give it the value it would have possessed had Mr. Welsh been able to finish it.

William Welsh may not have a detailed biography available, but a tantalizing peak at his personality comes through with a short quote found in his field book from December 20, 1913.

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

William F. Foshag (1894-1956) was a curator in the joined the US National Museum's Division of Mineralogy and Petrology. Foshag's research was primarily devoted to the study of the geology and mineralogy of Mexico. Between 1926 and 1941, Foshag made several collecting trips to Mexico under the auspices of the Smithsonian's Roebling Fund. While serving as a representative of the United States Geological Survey in its cooperative work with the Mexican government, during this time, Foshag was able to study the eruption of the Paricutin Volcano in 1943. He made subsequent visits to Paricutin in 1944 and 1945 to observe the volcano.

Taken by William F. Foshag while researching the development of a volcanic cone called Parícutin. The volcano emerged in Dionisio Pulido's, a Tarascan Indian, corn field in Parícutin, Mexico, located 200 miles west of Mexico City, March 23, 1943. Smthsonian Institution Archives. RU 007281, Box 7, Folder Photographs of Parícutin #F2-#F14, 1943 Photographs of Parícutin #F2-#F14, 1943. SIA2009-0856.

About 15 minutes after our arrival, a spot, about one meter across became more incandescent, changing from the glowing red of the lava cracks to a brilliant orange yellow, and began to work like leavening bread, and then to slowly flow. Slowly the moving area spread, and within five minutes the entire cliff, for the width of five meters had melted into a flow of brilliant orange.

--William Foshag while traversing the sides of Paricutin Volcano in Mexico in 1943.

Friday, 27 December 2013

Edgar Alexander Mearns (1856-1916) was an army surgeon and field naturalist. He developed an early interest in natural history, studying the flora and fauna around his home in Highland Falls, New York. Mearns' primary biological interests were ornithology and mammalogy. During his tours in the US Army he managed to collect extensively across the United States, United States-Mexican border as member of the United States-Mexican International Boundary Survey (serving as medical officer), and the Philippines. The National Museum of Natural History houses thousands of his specimens, 30,000 just from his collecting during 1892 to 1894. Though not initially a professional collector, he was well respected in the field natural history, and was even invited by Theodore Roosevelt to accompany the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition as naturalist. From 1909 to 1910, Mearns explored parts of British East Africa from Mount Kenia to the White Nile. Mearns' last expedition was in 1911, when he served as a naturalist with the Childs Frick Expedition to Africa.

During his years of collecting, he shared his interest with his son Louis. The quote below is from one of his field book “E. A. Mearns field book, 1902” from collection SIA Acc. 11-097, and shows that this shared enjoyment of natural history was not just limited to his son.

Spermophilus mexicanus parvidens – A pair of these ground squirrels was given me by a Seminole woman at Ft. Clark, Texas. They were caught by pouring water down their holes, and taken as they emerged therefore to escape drowning. I let them go in our back yard at Ft. Clark beside a pile of old lumber in which they sought shelter. Later they dug a burrow beneath this heap of rubbish having an exit outside the bound fence which enclosed the yard. These squirrels and a rabbit which likewise resided in the same pile of rubbish in the corner of our yard were the theme of numerous comments by my wife and children in my absence during the Spanish War. Under date of November 10, 1898, my wife wrote: “the squirrel has a big hold in the yard, and he is carrying down excelsior for his winter nest. I like to see them around.” Lepus bachmam(?) – Louis di Z. Mearns [Edgar Mearns’s son] wrote June 22, 1898: “our rabbit has a hold in the front yard under a tree, and I saw it twice today.”

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Vernon Orlando Bailey (1864-1942) was a naturalist who collected for the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the United States Department of Agriculture (in 1896 the name was changed to the Bureau of Biological Survey) under Clinton Hart Merriam. He joined the Bureau in 1887, and eventually became chief field naturalist in 1890, remaining with the Biological Survey until his retirement in 1933. Bailey's chief biological interest was the study of the life history and distribution of mammals. During his career with the Biological Survey, he made field investigations throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including intensive biologicalsurveys of Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Oregon.

Nov. 28 Started from [?] at 7:30 a.m. and got back to Wallowa at 5 p.m., a little after dark. Had a small dry biscuit with a piece of bacon in it for Thanksgiving dinner, but made up for this in a roast good supper at Mr. O’Briens. This is the last of a hard 3 days horseback trip. The weather has been clear and pleasant tho (sic) cold.

Tuesday, 03 September 2013

Alexander Wetmore was an ornithologist and the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian. During 1911-1912 he collected in Puerto Rico, while working for the USDA’s Bureau of Biological Survey. He recorded his work in four volumes in which he described his daily activities, collecting methods, and observations of flora and fauna, as well as observations about the effect of tobacco and coffee plantations on the environment.
In the fourth volume covering July 18 – September 15, he also discusses some of his less than stellar evenings on the island.

July 19, Friday -- Last night was certainly a bad one. First time in my life that bed bugs even kept me awake to amount to anything but I expect that all together I slept less than two hours. Got up twice turned on a light and first time killed 41 and next time 18. The pillows here are filled with a sort of seed something like cattail and then the mice or rats I did not know which tore a hole in mine and would not let it alone so finally I threw it in a corner on the floor.

[April 28, 1949] Come to the arctic for good food! I don’t think it would be possible for a steak to be thicker, juicier, or tenderer. Wouldn’t a lot of people in the states give a pretty penny for one of the carcasses in our storehouse? One hind quarter yielded as many steaks that it was difficult even for eight super chow hounds to prevent any of it from being thrown to the dogs...

Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Louis Hutchins (1916-1957) was a marine biologist whose primary interests were the study of marine bryozoan and marine fouling. Over his career, he worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1943 – 1947) and later as Director of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (1949 - 1952). In October 1957, Hutchins passed away at the age of 41, drowning while on a field trip to Plummers Island in the Potomac River.
Louis Hutchins was also part of the scientific staff of the United States Navy Buoy Fouling Survey, 1943-1947. This survey documented marine fouling fauna across the most of the coasts of the United States, and its work is documented in Smithsonian Institution Archive SIA RU007248. The quote below is from the end of a letter Louis Hutchins wrote to “Boo” found in box 1 folder 33, summarizing what he will write in his next message.

[Newfoundland, July 1948]…There is a lot to tell you sometime, but I am not up to writing it today. About what a swell guy Adrian is, and Harold Backus, and all the ship’s company for that matter. About the Navy people here, and all they have done to make us welcome and help, and how we have almost lived on whiskey as the only way to keep warm in this place that God forgot. (It is phenomenally cheap here, by the way, about $1.75 a bottle for top-notch stuff.) About how I nearly became chief scientist for the next leg of the trip, and how I have served as a sort of anomalous acting chief scientist for the last week. About the assorted screw-balls who make up the scientific party, and about the swell food and life on the Atlantis and about a million other assorted things such as the ludicrous true stories about the mate, Mr. Karlson. But all this will keep. On the theory we shall sail tonight I want to go up to the club and have a hot bath, and get this in the mail together with a letter to Columbus…

To learn more about this and other materials, visit Smithsonian’s Collection Search Center.

[Singapore September 8, 1917] This was a red letter day. I tasted my first durian, a most remarkable fruit…I tasted before breakfast and eat some 5 pieces of seeds but did not desire any more then. I put the remainder away in the wardrobe of my room and when I returned I could smell the odor from afar as a distance of 50 feet in the hotel corridor.

The Field Book Project is an initiative to increase accessibility to field book content that documents natural history. Through ongoing partnerships within and beyond the Smithsonian Institution, the Project is making field books easier to find and available in a digital format for current research, as well as inspiring new ways of utilizing these rich information resources.